State records 100 pc pendency in corruption cases: Report
Source: Chronicle News Service

Imphal, July 24 2022: Even though the state occupied the top rank in the recently published India Innovation Index 2021, the same report also shows 100 per cent pendency in corruption cases and low chargesheet rate in the state.

Manipur led the 'North East and Hilly States' category in the index released by NITI Aayog vice-chairman Suman Bery on July 21. Prepared by NITI Aayog and the Institute for Competitiveness, the India Innovation Index is a comprehensive tool for the evaluation and development of the country's innovation ecosystem.

It ranks the states and the union territories on their innovation performance to build healthy competition amongst them and highlights the scope of innovation analysis in the country by drawing on the framework of the Global Innovation Index through 66 indicators, which are distributed across 16 sub-pillars, which, in turn, form seven key pillars.

Safety and Legal Environment is another important pillar, which is further divided into two sub-pillars � safety and security environment, and legal regulatory environment.

The national average for the pillar was calculated to be 31.84, with 21 states/ UTs performing below the national average.

In the North Eastern and Hilly states category, Manipur is a relatively better performer, with a score of 72.13 as it has consistently performed well in all 5 indicators relating to safety and security environment.

The sub-pillar focuses on the safety and security aspects of a state, based on various factors, including crime rate, cyber and social media monitoring, police personnel per lakh population and so on.

Manipur has the highest number of cybercrime police stations per lakh population at 0.35, and the third-highest number of police personnel per lakh at 942.93, just below Nagaland, and Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Manipur has also registered a low rate of cognizable crimes per lakh population, just below Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, and Nagaland as per the NCRB data.

Legal Regulatory Environment sub-pillar has three indicators: Pendency of court cases, Chargesheet rate, and Percentage of pending corruption cases.

It is an important measure to analyse the legal regulatory framework in a state, with respect to timely and efficient redressal and low pendency of court cases.

The pendency of court cases is lowest in Haryana and highest in Puducherry.

In case of chargesheet rate, the percentage of the chargesheets filed out of the total number of cases is highest on Gujarat and Kerala with 97.1 per cent and 94.9 per cent respectively, and lowest in Meghalaya and Manipur with 18.1 per cent and 18.5 per cent respectively.

The backlog in corruption cases is calculated in the pendency percentage indicator.

Tripura, and Lakshadweep states have zero backlog corruption cases against 100 per cent backlog in Manipur, Sikkim, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Bihar Ladakh and West Bengal.

In fact, all the states except for Puducherry, Tripura and Lakshadweep have over 85 per cent backlog reflecting a grim state of corruption cases pending across the courtrooms in the country.

There is a wide disparity in the performance of the states.

In this pillar, the top performers are all the Northeast and Hilly States, and Union Territories and City States.

This does not necessarily mean a safer and legally resilient environment in the top-performing states.

For example, a lower rate of offences under IT/IP acts can also be associated with inadequate reporting of such cases.

So, it becomes necessary to carefully analyse each indicator to better understand the safety and legal environment in a limited frame.

Irrespective of the state's scores on the pillar, it is necessary to improve a region's safety aspect.

This could be achieved by introducing cyber and social media monitoring cells to address cybercrimes.

Equally important is a pertinent legal, regulatory environment to clear the backlog of corruption and other court cases, and improve the chargesheet rate.

Through a strong safety and legal environment, the state will attract investment and promote growth by efficiently utilising the innovation landscape in the region, the report stated.

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